Telomeres, trauma, and mindfulnessTelomeres, trauma, and mindfulness
All In The Mind
The connection between our minds and bodies determines our health and well-being, and the rate at which our cells age and die can be influenced by lifestyle choices. We hear about keeping our genes in good order by protecting our telomeres—a buffer zone at each end of our chromosomes. We'll also hear about a mindfulness-based intervention which could really help millions of extremely traumatised displaced people around the world. This program was first broadcast in August 2019
28:57•22 Dec 2019
Telomeres, Trauma and Mindfulness: How Stress Shapes Body and Mind
Episode Overview
- Chronic stress and many psychiatric and chronic diseases are associated with shorter telomeres and lower telomerase levels.
- Diet, exercise, weight loss and meditation are suggested as ways that may help stabilise or even lengthen telomeres, though long-term evidence is still emerging.
- Parental mental and physical health, including prenatal stress and depression, may influence children’s telomere length and lifelong health.
- Mindfulness-Based Trauma Recovery for Refugees aims to offer moments of internal refuge and safety to highly traumatised asylum seekers using group-based mindfulness and compassion practices.
- Early data from refugee interventions suggest meaningful reductions in post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and improvements in daily calm and family relationships, with very low rates of harm reported.
“I still get angry, but I choose.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety and better mental health? This episode of All In The Mind brings together cutting-edge science and human stories to show how mind and body are tightly linked. You’ll hear professor Elissa Eppel explain telomeres — the protective caps on our chromosomes that "protect the genes from damage" and act as stress sensors in every cell.
She shares how chronic stress, psychiatric conditions and poor lifestyle choices are tied to shorter telomeres, while habits like a Mediterranean-style diet, regular exercise, weight loss and meditation may help keep them in better shape. There’s a strong focus on how stress in parents, especially during pregnancy, could affect the telomere length of their children, highlighting the importance of mental and physical health long before birth.
The tone shifts from lab findings to lived experience as professor Amit Bernstein talks about a "global mental health crisis" among forcibly displaced people. His team has created Mindfulness-Based Trauma Recovery for Refugees, a group intervention that’s mindfulness- and compassion-based and carefully adapted for highly traumatised African asylum seekers in Israel. He stresses the need to make it safe, trauma-sensitive and culturally flexible, and reports that, in a study of 152 participants, only one showed any clinically significant worsening.
The real impact shines through in the stories: one man who’d survived extreme hardship described realising "everyone around him wasn’t actually his enemy" and summed up his change with, "I still get angry, but I choose." Several women reported calmer relationships with their children and fewer violent reactions at home.
If you’re curious about how stress, lifestyle and mindfulness might shape long-term health and recovery from trauma, this episode might get you asking: what small changes could start protecting your own mind and body today?
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